[ghost] Ghost wont connect to get image off laptop

[RabbieBurns]

Im new to ghost. Ive just installed it locally on my workstation to have a play. I can deploy the client to the laptop when Im trying to take an image from it. It reboots, but then it never connects back to my workstation to the Ghost Console.

 

Is it because im just running it on win7 and not a server?

[Martin]

Firewall on Windows 7??

 

mb

[RabbieBurns]

Firewall on Windows 7??

 

mb

 

first thing i checked.. turned it off and it did the same..

 

Do i need to configure ghost to tell it what IP to use when it reboots, or should it just pick up from dhcp?

[Martin]

PXE-booting should get it's IP from DHCP, but you might want to set Option 60 to "PXEClient" so the client knows to go back to the same machine for the boot image.

 

mb

[Martin]

er, assuming you are using PXE

 

mb

[RabbieBurns]

I have no idea.. Whats the default?

 

It reboots OK after I deploy the client to it, and then it sits there going: "trying to contact " over and over

 

and the ghost on my workstation just sits there going, waiting for connection

[ricki]

Hi

 

If you are deploying it from the console have you set the correct nic card that it should use. What happens is when windows is running it uses the nic card driver from windows. Then when it reboots it reboots into a virtual partition and it uses the drivers you have specified for the machine. It it does not work it reboots into windows, but it it partially works it gets stuck in the virtual partition and you have to do a key combination to get out. I am sorry I dont remember it off the top of my head.

 

Richard

[RabbieBurns]

Oh, ok. I didnt set any of that. I just jumped straight in and created a 'get image from machine' task. I guess I should really spend some time Reading TFM

[RabbieBurns]

I still can't get this working. Is anyone able to talk me through setting this up pelase?

[sted]

assuming you have the console on a n other pc on teh same network and that said network supports dhcp

 

once the pc is in the console you need to check its network settings i personally find pcdos and ndis drivers more reliable and quicker than winpe but thats just me and universal driver works for a lot of stuff

 

the task itself is fairly easy all you need to do is tyell it what pc to pull and where to store the image

[Guest TheLibrarian]

Is your Ghost server and Ghost client on the same subnet?

 

If not then you will exerience this problem if the router isn't set to forward [insert some port numbers that I can't remember here] and multicast traffic.

[p858snake]

Are you just trying to take a image or roll out a application/package? If it's the former I just recommend creating a boot disk (CD/Floppy/USB/PXE server) and do it fom in the dos based environment.

 

Or if your adventurous I might have a guide for creating a winpe disc with the 32bit app in it to do it.

[RabbieBurns]

Im trying to take an image. Its a netbook with no cd drive but I guess I could use a usb cd. Once Ive taken the image though, wont I just have the same issue trying to deploy the image?

 

Its a flat network, all on the same subnet.

 

Sted, Ill try changing it to your settings and see if it works. These are win7 not sure if that makes a difference

[Guest TheLibrarian]

First an apology - this is quite disjointed - I've not had time to write, read, think and reformat.

 

Im trying to take an image. Its a netbook with no cd drive but I guess I could use a usb cd. Once Ive taken the image though, wont I just have the same issue trying to deploy the image?

 

Yes you will have the same issue.

 

 

 

Its a flat network, all on the same subnet.

 

OK, that makes this much easier.

 

 

 

Sted, Ill try changing it to your settings and see if it works. These are win7 not sure if that makes a difference

 

Win7 won't make the slightest difference as long as you are using an up-to-date version of Ghost.

____

 

 

OK, I can't say for certain that the Ghost server will work from Win7, but I don't know of any reason that it won't.

 

What Ghost client operating system are you using?

WinPE, Linux, or PC-DOS?

My preference is WinPE then Linux then PC-DOS.

 

Do you have a WINS server?

I have seen Ghostcasting fail when it can't get a NetBIOS name for a machine.

 

In most cases I'd recommend making sure you use NIC drivers specifically for the client PC in question.

I have used the Unversal Packet Driver sucessfully a few times, but I prefer not to.

 

 

You need to test communication between the server and client, easiest way is to boot the client using Ghost's WinPE, you have the usual range of command line tools, ping, nslookup etc.

Use the Ghost Boot Disk Wizard to create a bootable memory pen for testing the comms.

 

 

If you have comms use the Ghost32 exe on the pen and try to connect to a GhostSrv(.exe) that you run manually. (Simple settings, see the attached screenshot)

In the Ghost Client use Ghostcast -> Unicast, try automatic and if that fails try giving it the Ghost server IP.

 

 

To test if WINS is your issue:

If you can, isolate the Ghost Server and client on their own switch, use TFTPD32 to give you DHCP, DNS and WINS and see how you get on.

TFTPD can be found here TFTPD32 : a opensource TFTP server/service for windows : TFTP server

Please make sure you permanently deactivate TFTPD32's DHCP service before you connect your server back to the main network.

 

 

 

I can't think of much more at the moment - keep us posted.

 

 

Last thought, it may be useful to know the WinPE provided with the latest Ghost Solution Suite is based on W2K8, so if you need to add drivers get the W2K8 ones...

[RabbieBurns]

I have changed it to the PC-DOS and it worked perfectly thanks. Its currently taking an image, only a 5gb install, but its taking aboout 3 hours. Its a 1gig switched network.

[Guest TheLibrarian]

My first guess would be that the speed is being impared by the PC-DOS client, I have found each type of hardware we have has one of the three Ghost client O/S's that will perform best - for instance Linux and WinPE on the Toshiba A3XE's we've got take hours to image a 17Gb image and less that 2 hours with PC-DOS.

 

It'd be wise to try each Ghost Client O/S to see which performs best.

 

At the moment I haven't figured out how to add drivers to the Linux client, but the PC-DOS and WinPE are very easy to update.

[RabbieBurns]

Thanks. I set 10 going before I left work. Will see how they turn out in the morning. They are being reimaged from XP - Win7. What should I be looking at that will automatically rename them to what they were before, and rejoin them to the domain?

[Guest TheLibrarian]

There are a three O/S configuration options you can use to rename PC's and add them to the domain.

 

1. Default
   
2. Template
   
3. Custom
   

The least useful is Template, so I'll leave you to play with that at a later date.

 

Custom would be used for PC's new to the domain or PC's that require a name change.

 

Default, once the Ghost Console has learned the configuration of the PC(s) Default will configure the PC how it was recorded in the Ghost database - be careful to maintain and update the database otherwise you could find PC's using old names.

 

 

When creating the Ghost push task tick the 'configuration' task step to get the configuration tab, the configuration option you would use here is Default.

Before you use Default you should ensure that the Ghost Console has the latest configuration information stored by running a Ghost task with just 'refresh configuration' ticked.

 

If you are using Custom or Template configurations, the configurations are typically created before the task, Custom configurations then have to be dragged and dropped on to the appropriate machine after hitting the 'Customize' button on the task configuration tab - but I'm sure you'll figure that out with a little exploring.

[RabbieBurns]

Default, once the Ghost Console has learned the configuration of the PC(s) Default will configure the PC how it was recorded in the Ghost database - be careful to maintain and update the database otherwise you could find PC's using old names.

 

What is the ghost database? Do I need to deploy the client to all the machines I want to reimage and then do some sort of configuration scan before imaging?

 

Cheers for the help, appreciate it.

[Guest TheLibrarian]

The Ghost Console keeps its own database behind the scenes.

 

You don't need to do anything to it (IME) until you eventually need to upgrade / replace the server that Ghost is on.

 

You will need the Ghost client on every PC that you want the Ghost Console to 'see' and work with.

 

IIRC when you install the client Ghost will perform a limited configuration scan, however it is best to run a task with just 'refresh configuration' ticked.

 

I don't think users have ever noticed when I've run the refresh config task, they will notice when you run a refresh inventory task though, that hammers the drive for a while.

[RabbieBurns]

Its not feasible to have the client installed on all computers at all times as Im only licensed for 500 ghost and ive got about 2000 machines. So Ill just do the refresh config task before the deploy, and then have a play with the Default configuration task.

 

At the moment Im just running the new version on my workstation in 30 day / 10 machine mode. (The old version is installed on a server - can I do an inplace upgrade, or is it best to uninstall it and do a clean install)

[RabbieBurns]

edit: Also, about 70-80% are laptops too so never all on at the same time..

[Guest TheLibrarian]

Unfortunately Rabbie, that is against the licensing terms for Ghost.

 

You have to buy a Ghost client license for every PC that has an operating system deployed by Ghost - whether the PC is in use or not.

 

To free a license you have to erase the operating system installed by Ghost imaging.

 

 

At least that is how I understand the licensing to work - I could be wrong, but I am fairly certain I am not.

 

 

I mention this for your information, how you choose to manage your licensing is not really my concern - but I would feel I had let you down by not pointing this out.

[RabbieBurns]

Just checked, and its a 500 and a 200. Theres a load of Imacs and macbooks as well which we use netrestore for too, so should be alright. The boss did the licensing so Im sure he knows whats what...

 

Maybe my guess of 2000 machines was off. Ill check tomorrow.

[Guest TheLibrarian]

I love leaving licensing to the boss.